Violet Pain
by WWT
Summary: Remus comes back from a summer vacation with a new friend and transfer student in tow. The changes this one girl bring with her may shock everyone, especially the way she reveals secrets, both her own and others' to make them happy, sacrificing her own.
1. Indifferent and Different with a side

**Author:** Werewolftrixie (WWT)

**Story Title: ** Violet Pain

**Chapter title: ** Indifferent and Different with a Side of Friendship

**Rating: ** pg-13... for now, and just to be sure.

**Genre: **Romance, Drama, tragedy

**Characters: ** OC, Remus Lupin

**Pairing: **Can't tell you yet, but there's going to be some rivalry over one specific person. I'm not going to tell you anything else, however! -insert evil cackle-

**Warnings:** OC as a major character. Marauders' era. I hate to say it, but I can't put two of the warnings in that I should, because, well, It would give away the two prizes I offer at the end of this chapter!

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**AN: **I hope to wrap this story up in a few chapters, but it may end up being complex and needy of more. Hope you enjoy.

**Violet Pain**

**Part one- Indifferent and Different with a Side of Friendship**

Remus Lupin, 16, sat on the ledge of his window, the cold rough stone rubbing relentlessly against his skin through the thin pajamas. He should have known to pack heavier clothes; the pamphlet had said it would be chilly here. Speaking of said pamphlet, he looked down at it, bored, and took a drag of his cigarette, the thin wavering smoke drifting out into the dark, night sky through the open window. Snow drifted peacefully to the ground in the winter breeze of the secluded Russian town... If one could even call it a town; it was mostly just the hospital he was currently in and an Inn for those who come to visit patients.

He was almost beginning to regret coming here. He hadn't even been there a whole day, and he was already weary of the smells and the nurses. They had advertised a program for those with Lycanthropy and other such "incurables" in which they were experimenting with different potions to try to cure the various ailments. His mother, ever eager to rid him of his worrisome burdens, had signed him up for it immediately. And so, he'd been packed off to this little hospital. He took another drag and continued to stare out into the trees (barren, though, they were) and remained completely oblivious to any other patients. It was, after all, a hospital and people were liable to walk aimlessly up and down the corridors at all hours of the night.

"You really shouldn't do that, you know, It's terrible for your health. Not that your lungs would really be affected by it so much. But you could possibly consider those of us who aren't afflicted with Lycanthropy." Remus whirled to find the source of the voice. A melodious, yet slightly monotone and dour toned voice.

It belonged to the girl propped up in the doorway of his small room, curtains of long black, edge-straight hair that went down to about the end of her ribcage falling around her like a blanket, shimmering ethereally in the annoyingly bright moonlight. Her vivid purple eyes stood out, almost glowing, standing out even more by dark, 'Gothic' makeup making her pale, pale skin seem like all the more porcelain like. An inky black eyebrow arched, and, although most wouldn't believe him if he told them the girl was joking (as there was no true sign of this in her expression), he was sure she was indeed, being playful in her own unique way. Remus had been so distracted by the girl's face and the simple fact he hadn't heard her coming in, that he was just not noticing the bandages that wrapped every inch of her, from the neck, down, traveling under the corset and shredded skirt she sported. They twisted around her every limb, the only thing excluded were her face, delicate hands, and bare feet.

He put the cigarette out, jabbing it against the cool, wet bricks just outside, then flicked it. Remus' eyes never left her. She began to walk in a bit farther, now, emboldened by the lack of toxins in the room now. Her hips swayed mercilessly as she sauntered in, extending her hand. He was still a bit slow on his reaction time and couldn't help but feel a bit nervous as he reached out to grasp the snow white, ice cold hand. It had stayed unwavering in the offer. "Amire Wolfe. That's Ah-meer. People can never get it right."

"Lupin. Remus Lupin." He returned, cautiously.

"So, Remus, what do you like?" she made a very brief pause before nonchalantly continuing, "Sorry if I'm intruding or something, but I've been here for a day and a half, and no one else I've seen so far here is remotely civilized, and I read five of my novels already." She reclined back on his bed "Needless to say, I'm pretty desperate for _something_ to do."

"Desperate?"

"Oh, not that you're bad company, I wouldn't know yet, would I? I just meant that I hardly ever talk to anyone. That's probably the most sentences I've strung together off of a piece of paper in, oh, say, a month... or two." Remus kept staring at the girl, lounging back on his mattress. Oh, she had asked a question, hadn't she? Now that he was catching up, he could see that she was still waiting as patiently as an angel.

"I, er... well, um." He typically was not this inarticulate, but this girl was coming from absolutely nowhere. "I like to read, so I guess we have something in common..."

"Oh, what are some of your favorites?"

"Er, that's a tough one... I guess it would have to be the classics, like, say... Shakespeare and Poe. There's tons more, but..."

"I know, I'm dreadfully sorry for barging in on you like this. But, really, everyone I've met or seen here can't speak proper English and they're driving my absolutely bonkers!" She rolled her eyes, and turned over onto her stomach.

"I don't really have any favorites, either, though... too many books to consider." Remus couldn't help but laugh at the similarity between what he'd just been thinking and what she'd expressed. Her solemn, stoic, and bored expression didn't waver at all. It was a tad unnerving, but he could feel that this was exactly what the girl was like very nearly _all_ the time. "You go to school?"

"Yeah, Hogwarts."

"Lucky. I wish I could go to school. I tried, but my condition... it kind of hindered that endeavor. I've had to teach myself, mostly, foster parents are... not typically all that great at magic, but I have permission from the ministry to do it, so I'm all good."

"Wow... Foster parents?" The girl didn't seem to be the kind of girl that was overly sensitive about that kind of subject. She told it like it is.

"My mum accidentally killed Dad when he forgot to leave the house one full moon. When Mum woke up the next morning and saw what had happened, the only thing in his mind was to commit suicide"

"What? How can you..." He was shocked, how could someone be so emotionally detached with something of that magnitude?

"Because, I don't really blame him; I probably would do the same thing."

"You'd kill yourself, despite the fact that you had a kid?"

"Well, when you have more than two people who give a shit that you're alive, it may be different, but my mum only had me and Dad. ...Knew I would understand."

"Why- Why did she only-"

"Full moon. I thought _you_ could at least get _that_ hint."

"She was a werewolf?" Amire gave a nod in response.

"So anyway, I'm constantly being shipped around from foster family to foster family and the condition usually makes it hard to find even one of _those_ to take me in."

For the next hour or two, she asked him questions, he asked her questions, and she divulged facts about her life in the process that most people break down in tears and hysterics about. For once in his life, Remus felt completely at ease with someone. He didn't even feel this at home with his best friends. He could tell Amire anything and she, for the most part, would understand.

Around three o'clock in the morning, Remus began to yawn, frequently so, and Amire began to eye the waxing gibbous moon. She began to rub her arms gingerly. He related it to the way he himself went to his scars when he did the same. Did her condition, which she had yet to mention (most likely the only thing she hadn't spilled), go to the rhythm of the moon, too? She smelled funny, but not exactly like a wolf which is what he would smell from her if she were afflicted with Lycanthropy. He decided not to ask her, however, as she was sitting up straighter, now, and readying to leave. She swung her legs over the side of the bed.

"I should go." Amire put out her legs to steady herself and began to push up a bit. However, as soon as she stood up, she began to wince, and her head reeled. Remus jumped to steady her. She seemed in pain. He wasn't really the best person to be doing this either; it was fairly close to the full and he was weakened.

"Are you ok?"

"Y-yeah," He paled a bit. She hadn't stuttered or hesitated once since they meant. Amire was obviously not fine. She began talking in between clenching and unclenching her hands "Could you... help me back to my room, it' s only a few doors down in number two-o-five."

"Of course." Helping her back to her room, shuffling the five doors down the hall, Remus helped his new friend set down on her own bed. He looked around to see stacks upon stacks of thick books stacked high on the small white desk. Titles of both muggle and wizarding origin were amongst them, both thick and thin. The bed, he noticed, was clad in a raggedy old black pillow and sheets with a stuffed wolf laying across the pillow.

"I knew I wouldn't be able to stand the itchy sheets they had on the bed, so I brought my own." she muttered.

"Should I get a nurse?"

"No. I'll tell the orderly in the morning. These episodes happen all the time. No need to wake anyone over them." she was sweating profusely now.

"What-"

"I feel like I'm on fire-" She began, but dropped the sentence as she began to whine and groan and whimper. "I'm fine. I'm used to it. You can leave."

"But-"

"I'm fine!"

"But- I can stay if you want. Just tell me if I can help, _please_!"

"I guess, if you really want to." She got out when the pain subsided momentarily. "It couldn't hurt, but really, I don't want to be a bother, Remmy."

"It's no problem... It's weird, but you don't- Normally, this close to the full moon, I get anxious around humans, but with you... I don't. You don't smell like a human, but I can't smell a specific animal, either." She was silent and it created a slightly awkward, tense air in the small, mostly sterile room.

"Are you going to stay? Like you said you would?"

"Oh, right, of course..." He chuckled awkwardly. She rolled her eyes in that way of hers, and lifted the sheets so he could slip under as well.

"Well, get in if you're getting in." She said deadpan, "Come on, you're letting a bunch of cold air in..."

"If you feel as if you're on fire, one would think you'd want as much cold as you could manage to get your hands on." he laughed as he got under, the air less palpable by far. It was funny how not-awkward or tempting this situation was. Although Amire was most likely the closest to having a girlfriend he'd ever had, and no doubt was the most attractive girl he'd ever been this close to, he felt no attraction to her in the way a typical guy would have in relation to a female. He was sure that if Sirius was in this situation, he'd have unzipped that silken, though quite worn, corset by now. _Sirius... I wonder what old Pads would think of her. _

As Remus felt his lids begin to droop, he began to think about the day's events. It had been, he decided, a wonderfully successful first day. Summing the past few hours up, he found what could only back up that proposition. Until of course, things started to pop into his sleep addle brain, that didn't quite match up and began to lead to questions, more than he had thought he would have for her, and more that went unanswered than answered even when he sifted through what she _had_ given him. What was even more quizzical, was that he was unable to get answers when Amire had given him such a huge quantity of history. She had been nearly unyielding in the sheer amount she revealed about her personal stream of time. One in particular was niggling at him in particular.

I'll give a _very_ special virtual fountain of _very_ special melted chocolate if anyone can guess what that particular niggling thought was. And also, I'll give a second fountain to who ever can figure out what the pairing will turn out to be in the end~ -wink wink nudge nudge-


	2. Grumpy, Good at Potions, and Lonely

**Author: **Werewolftrixie (WWT)

**Story title: **Violet pain

**Chapter title: "**Grumpy, Good at Potions, and Lonely Now have a Name"

**Rating: **PG-13... for now just to be safe.

**Genre(s): **Romance, drama, tragedy

**Characters: **Remus Lupin, OC

**Pairing: **See, problem is, no one has guessed the pairing yet and thus, I can't tell you until that magnificent fountain prize has been claimed. Again, though, there will be rivalry over one character. And it's not Remus/OC

**Warnings: **OC as major character, Marauder era, two more I can't mention due to no one winning the prizes yet!

**Disclaimer: ** I own nothing except the wonderfully odd Amire and her beloved stuffed wolf. Those belong to my imagination.

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**AN: ** Looking for a beta! Apply and you will frequently be lavished with a plethora of virtual gifts! Also, I'm not going to be filling in that info you all are dying to know until someone at least _guesses_. Is one review so much to ask for?

**Violet Pain**

**Part two: Grumpy, Good at Potions, and Lonely Now have a Name**

"Orderly! Orderly! Where is patient two-hundred!?"

"What do you mean, Sir?" The heavy footsteps of the large boned nurse rushed clip-clopping in flats down the cold white hall towards the doctor.

"He's gone, you imbecile! Can't you even reign in an moronic teenager!?" he fumed through a thick, Russian accent at the poor woman. Following that note were several of what sounded to be foul curses in his native tongue.

This was the ruckus that one Remus Lupin and one Amire Wolfe woke to the next morning. Amire, never one to be awakened earlier than truly necessary, or really anytime before she herself was willing to move, crawled over Lupin, who was still a bit stunned by the rather sudden not to mention _loud_ wake-up call. No wakey Amire early without good reason. He noted in his head, grammar be damned.

Readjusting the corset, which had twisted a bit in her sleep, she stumbled over to the door and, it being a sliding door, promptly slammed it open with a satisfying _snap, _silencing the medical staff.

"Would you two bumbling _jackasses_ shut up? _Some_ of us are trying to sleep. He's not missing. He was with me the whole night. I got bored and bumped into him, and got to talking. I had an episode, and he helped me to my room. Stayed by my bedside the whole night. _Now_, if you _excuse_ me, I'd like to get some freaking _sleep_ for once!" Amire growled in her scarily unwavering, toneless, _positively menacing _voice. Remus, walking out behind her meekly, could swear he saw a shiver run down the doctor's spine. It was not from the cold, that was certain.

With that, she trudged back into her room, and fell unceremoniously to the mattress. He looked from her, to the doctor and nurse just outside of his room. The doctor was coming towards him... Remus was suddenly very aware of his sense of impending doom. He turned to the girl on her cot, as if in a silent plea of 'save me'. The doctor motioned him towards him, and her turned to leave. Remus turned one last time to her, and then back to the hall and began to take a step, bare feet freezing cold from the chill of the sterile white tile floor.

"Hey, Moony... good luck, mate." she smiled faintly. He returned it, knowing the reassurance was not something she gave to just anyone, and it was to be kept that way; she _had_ said it quiet enough for only the two of them to hear.

Remus got back two hours later from his appointment (which he might mention he never knew he had had in the first place). His every fiber ached and was sore to the touch from being poked and prodded. They'd done so many ridiculous tests. Some of which involved poking him with their wands at intervals and zapping him with a stinging spell to measure reflexes. And those nurses... well, let's leave it at the fact that he preferred Madam Pomfrey compared to them.

Rummaging in his trunk, he fished out the imminent potions essay he had due first thing back to school. He was Bullocks at Potions, and was doomed, either way; he might as well do it now when he would be able to do no other subject (all of which he was at least _somewhat_ competent at) due to the pains and stiffness he was enduring. Parchment, check. Inkwell, check. Quill (however bedraggled), check. Potions textbook, check. Essay prompt, check. A clue, no can do.

Sighing, he set to work. The prompt was horrid. Complex and for someone who was as clueless as him, dooming. _Remind me again why I took Potions in a year as important as this? Oh, right, because my friends are taking it. _He was about half way through the daunting five foot essay when his savior, his much needed distraction and procrastination opportunity, walked right through the open doorway of his room, licking a lime Popsicle.

"'Cha doin', Moons?" Amire leaned over his shoulder, munching and biting at the frozen treat, so as to make it disappear before it melted all over her favorite little werewolf's neat and tidy floor.

"Nothing! Oh, where'd you get that? I want one! Let's go get me one." She ignored his attempts to lure her away from his atrocious writings and get himself away from them in the process.

"Oh! Potions!" She skimmed over it and a ghost of a smile flitted across the pale porcelain features of her face. Mirthful, that smile was, and her eyes continued to laugh even when her mouth twitched back into it's perpetual form of a line. "This is all wrong, Love. You're supposed to crush those, not chop 'em finely." He gave a groan.

"And I'm supposed to take the word of the girl with no formal schooling?"

"Yes, that's exactly what you're supposed to do." she grinned with her eyes, one eyebrow rising as if challenging. Remus, realizing that comment had been a bit biting, went to apologize, but she would have none of that, and silenced him with a raised hand. Her lips comically pursed around the cold sweet in the process, as she had no spare hand to hold it (one was held up to him in a silent 'shut up' and the other steadying her a bit as she balanced half on and half off of the back of the low plastic chair). He checked the book again and, upon seeing she was precisely correct in her directions, settled back and allowed her to edit over his shoulder for the next hour and a half, which, oddly enough, hardly bugged him. Or really, it wasn't that unusual, because he was just happy to get a passing grade. Quite frankly, he wouldn't care if it was one of the doctors helping him.

When they were all finished up, and he'd stowed the large scroll away in his bulky trunk, they flopped down on his bed and just stared at the ceiling. Out of no where, she popped a very odd question, "Hey, do you still want that Popsicle? I'm sure they wouldn't mind if I broke into the freezer again today. I mean, it's not as if they _don't_ know who's doing it, they're just too scared to do anything about it." She paused, eyes smiling in the way he found he reveled in knowing he was the cause. "Am I _scary_ Moon-ny?" He chuckled. Oh yes, how he couldn't wait to tell the others about this girl and their escapades. She'd fit right in with the lot of them.

"No, Amire, you are anything but. Ok, maybe a bit unsettling," he teased. Truth be told, Lupin thought himself the only one who _didn't_ find her thoroughly disturbing. He'd been avoided like the plague by the other patients, and when he'd told her about this, she gave a slight, sad smile for but a moment and remarked that it was a bit of a curse that came to those who got close to her. At that, he was a bit annoyed. The simple fact of Amire's being a tad abnormal making people judge so immediately and also the way they treated him as her friend. One would think that this being a hospital of incurables, that they would be a bit more understanding in the matter than they were.

Amire carded through her inky black hair and sighed heavily, lids of her eyes drooping. Her fingers toyed idly at a small hole in his bedsheets. She seemed to be drifting off into a rather peaceful sleep, so, knowing those sorts of slumbers must be a rare and gratifying occurrence, Remus let sleeping dogs lie, or, in her case, sleeping wolves. He stepped out into the empty hall, feeling oddly vulnerable with the air of eerie silence that swept over his senses as they always did when he or his new best friend stepped into the corridors. No one was ever out and about whenever Amire happened to be. The girl, was truly like a leper; if she went _out_, everyone went _in_ to avoid her. Again, pity washed over him, but he quickly chased it away as Amire was the sort of person who wanted none of it. Shoes tapping on the tile reminiscent of a muggle hospital and the echo of the sound reverberating off the undecorated, unwelcoming walls, he stopped as he came upon the water fountain and took a small sip. Really, he'd just needed to get out of his room for a few seconds. But he couldn't leave the girl alone for too long; he liked to be there for her when she had those terrifying spasms. He had his moments of the wolf taking over just before the full, but nothing so constant as this. They would only get worse, too, what with the full moon coming around in its irritatingly constant cycle soon.

Returning to his small, cramped room, he shuffled over to the small desk once more. This time, he retrieved a much smaller, letter-sized sheet of paper. His quill and ink already out, Remus sat down and set about doing what he had promised to do as soon as he'd arrived, but had put off doing. He started with the letter he would find the easiest to produce. The letter began with "To the most slobbery Padfoot"...

To the most slobbery Padfoot,

How are you old chap? I'm doing... okay, I suppose. The tests are absolutely horrid. I had my first today, and that was only a reflex test and examination; I can't imagine what the real medical trials are going to be like.

For some reason, it's still snowing here, despite the fact that it is the summer. The snow falls rapidly and thick, covering the grounds in a solid blanket and creating what seems to be a near constant blizzard. And because of this, the grounds are off limits, so there will no strolling out and about, even if I am having a fair day. I've been told that I shouldn't get my hopes up, because it isn't going to halt it's flurry fury anytime soon. The roads (or rather _road_, _singular_) are cleared once in the morning and once again around lunch, so I should be able to get to the post to send this on its way.

I've made a friend, a girl, named Amire (that's Ah-meer, she gets very anal about people not saying it right). No, Padfoot, don't you bother wolf-whistling, because we aren't like that. In fact, she's more like a sister, if anything. I think she'd fit right in with us all. She's made herself known to the staff as a notorious Popsicle thief, I learned today. She's terrified the staff and other patients with her emotionless facade. She may not show it, but behind that unchanging, unwavering, unsmiling face, she's got heart. It seems, though, that I am the only one who sees past it. And this time, you can't blame it on wolf-senses, either, because half of this hospital's occupants are of my sort. Amire is one of the few that are not. Her affliction is even worse, in my opinion. I won't go into the specifics, however; I don't have much time and I'm going in between sleeping as much as I can and eating as often as possible in preparation for my next transformation. But I will say that it must be unbearably painful.

So, what are you and James up to? What is the weather like there at Jame's summer cottage? Oh, do be descriptive; perhaps I can imagine the setting well enough to warm myself up a tad. Well, tell James I say hello and send some chocolate, please! Possibly some books as well. And no, by books, I do not mean issues of Witches Weekly or whatever that crap you and the others ogle at aimlessly for ages at a time. I mean _novels_. You know what I like.

It feels rather odd to be surrounded by the relative calm that is provided to me by this facility. The halls are quiet, especially when Amire or I go out into them; they treat her as a leper, and, as her friend, they treat me as someone infected as well. I can go for a whole day without being interrupted in my reading by explosions or pranks or you guys' dragging me off to do things. I must admit, I almost miss it. For now, I guess I will have to make due with the company of the lovely Amire.

Much love,

Moony

"'Sup?" Amire wrapped her arms around his shoulders, sucking on what appeared to be a blood lollipop. It caused him to startle. _ How does she sneak up on me like that? _

"Oh, nothing," he pretended he hadn't jolted like he had. "Just writing a letter to my friend. Did you steal that lollipop, too?" he chuckled. Wait, blood lollipop? Were those not for vampires? They were supposed to be absolutely disgusting to humans. Even werewolves typically couldn't stomach them. Yet, here was Amire, sucking on it lazily as if it were cherry flavored.

"Nah, I carry a few with me everywhere. These skirts of mine hide a bit more than they appear to. This to the one you mentioned yesterday night? Sirius?" She began to read over his shoulder.

"Yes... How can you eat _that_?"

"Oh, I dunno... I suppose it comes with the affliction- oi!" she said, reading. "I am not _anal_ about the pronunciation of my name, simply _firm_." She gave a slightly amused tone, a playfulness only Remus would hear.

"If you say so." he said, singsong.

"Hey," her voice was not smiling anymore, but was very serious. "Remus, what's it like having friends?"

"What'd you mean?"

"Just like what I said, what's it like to have friends, I mean more than one."

"I still don't-"

"Moony, you're the first friend I've had since the day my parents died. I keep away from everyone, normally. I move around too often to have a steady relationship with just about anyone."

"Foster system ships you around that often?"

"Yeah, well, they don't really know the full extent to what goes into taking care of me. My last set of fosters dumped me here, just before signing for me to be rotated to the next bunch so they could skimp out on taking care of me for the full allotted time."

Remus Lupin was speechless, no family, no friends, and very few personal belongings... what a lonesome existence. He made a pact there and then that, whether or not the two of them parted ways for good at the end of the trials, he would continue to write to her and at least give her some form of contact. She seemed to like his companionship.

"Remus? Still with me?" She shocked him from his thoughtful reverie. She was shaking him slightly by the shoulders.

"What? Oh, right. Well, I suppose... well, it's like you and me. We get along and help each other to get through our ordeals. In most cases, though, you fight a lot more. But you always get past it."

"Must be nice. What're they like? You talked a bit about them, last night, but you didn't actually tell me anything about them. Paint me a picture... Metaphorically, of course, you can leave the literal meaning to me."

"James is the leader, essentially. Always chasing after this redhead named Lily, who has refused him since day one. He mopes about half of the time, moaning and groaning about how he wishes he were dead. The rest of the time, he;s off and about with Sirius, pulling pranks."

"I asked for a painting, and you gave me a bio for a dating website."she chuckled slightly. Most would have mistaken it for a cough. "Picture, please." He rose from the chair and collapsed on the mattress.

"Uhm, okay, he has dark black, hair that looks rather like a messy bird's nest. He's got a seeker's build, all skinny and not really muscly.

"Then, there's Sirius. He's fairly buff; he's a beater for the team at school. Ladies man, is probably the best way to describe him. With his long dark wavy hair, and his charming smile and wit, he can get any girl, or boy, in the school that he wants. They've even formed a fangirl club a few of them have. He, rather unfortunately, is just about the quickest to fight and has a fairly short temper. Not the brightest in the bunch, either."

"And... what's the third's name again? Peter?"

"Yes, Peter... Peter's like a third wheel, but less so than I. He does the dirty work, and practically worships James. He's got thin, blondish hair and is rather heavyset. He's a bit twitchy, and, er... likes to eat? God I'm no good at this."

"I agree." Amire came and sat beside him, sinking a bit into the uncomfortable scratchy sheets, one eyebrow raised in an amused fashion. She flipped her hair, the long tendrils of which splayed about her, before she allowed herself to fall to the mattress. She stared up at the ceiling for a long moment and Moony took the chance to observe her appearance. She looked thoughtful, almost like she was considering what it would be like to have the friends that he surrounded himself with on a daily basis at Hogwarts.

"Must be nice." She remarked, finally breaking the silence.


	3. Her Fix, Her Savior

**Author:** Werewolftrixie (WWT)

**Story title:** Violet Pain

**Chapter title: **"Her Fix; Her savior"

**Rating: ** PG-13... just in case... for now.

**Genres: ** Romance, Drama, Tradgety

**Characters:** Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, OC

**Pairing(s):** Congrats to Pounce'sStarlet for getting the pairings correct! -forks over fountain- Although it may seem like they were meant to be, this is NOT Remus/OC! It is (going to be) OC/ Sirius, Remus/ Sirius

**Warnings: **UnBeta-ed -ness, OC as major character, Marauders' era, slash

**Beta:** None: But I'd love for anyone to contact me via PM about wanting the position!

**AN: ** This chapter is just sort of scatterbrained and a whack of little chappies crammed into one big long one. I want to get this out of the way so we can get onto the real story line. Also, I know that some of the behavior in this chapter is... not really wolf-like in behavior as I planned it to be (dunno how that happened) but it had to happen to lead up to the unveiling of Amire's condition. I ended up exaggerating the bond and it ended up... mate-like. _ The challenge at the end of chapter one is also still open (not the pairing one), but this is the last chance for it! HINT: there was a piece in the last one where Amire is talking about her mother. To keen eyes, it may have looked like a typo, but it was 100% intentional, I assure you. Go see if you can find it! I'm sorry this is so late! I'm not going to make any excuses, though. Even though I have a ton... Hopefully, the length makes up for it. Next chappie is coming soon, already written as it is.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. Not even Amire and her stuffed wolf; the people in my brain owns those. Oi! You! Shut up! I'm trying to prattle off the important stuff to the wonderful readers! -raps on head-

**Violet Pain**

**Part Three: Her Fix, Her Savior**

Remus paced back and for the in the small waiting area of the small inn's postage room, his shoes boring treads marks in the old, aged wood. They, he and Amire were awaiting the postal man to retrieve the package that had come for him, and Amire was simply tagging along to get out on the nicest day they'd had in since her arrival.

He had been waiting for ages for this reply, the one to his initial letter to Sirius. It was not until the morning he had gone to send the mail off that he had learned that he could leave the post at the inn's postal service office, but that the letter could not be sent out by owl until the storm let up, which was a very rare occurrence. Much to his dismay, it had not happened until a week after he'd come to the barren town. If one could call it that. It was now a full two weeks later, and he was growing very impatient with being separated in all shapes and forms from his best mates.

"Oh, Moony, you act as if you're lovers with him, the way you get all bothered waiting for his letter. I don't see you like this for your mother's owl to come. Heck, you didn't even send that one until a few days later." Amire snorted. "_Are_ you in love with him?" she continued, teasing the werewolf, causing him to blush.

"N-no! Of course not!" He gaped, his ceaseless pacing momentarily ceasing.

"Oh, come, now. I wouldn't judge you if you were, you know better."

She lounged sideways in a recliner, legs dangling off of one arm of the plush chair. She examined her nails in the way girls often do wen they are bored or avoiding eye contact. In this particular it was both; they had been there for a good half hour, so boredom was quite appropriate... and if she looked at him, he'd know indefinitely that she was just messing with him, and it was a fair amount more amusing to watch him flap around like a fish out of water. She needed to be entertained one way or another. Ruffling her long black tresses of hair, the dim torchlight reflected off of the dark shiny surface creating a halo of shine about her crown. Remus continued to gape for a moment before he shook his head and a chuckle escaped. He resumed walking in impatient circles, tiring the floor. His shoes' created a constant, nettlesome tapping noise on the rough boards. The woman in the chair in the corner, sitting as far as possible from Amire, began to peek over her newspaper at Lupin every so often; she didn't look happy, her massive, drooping wrinkles forming a frown without her mouth even being visible.

"_Remus_." She sighed, rolling her eyes at the boy. Swinging her legs to the proper position in the chair, she rose and grabbed his arm. "Would you sit down and be a little more patient? What's gotten into you? It's a bloody letter; you get plenty of them, probably. I can't imagine what you would be doing if you only got one or two a year like me." Unceremoniously, she forced him to sit in the wing-back recliner she'd just gotten out of. She was right, Remus had to admit to himself. Sighing, he shifted in the warm seat and began staring at the ceiling. It was a habit he'd picked up from her. He traced the lines of the cross beams with his eyes, searching for some interesting design in the knots.

Just then, the middle-aged man that had left over half an hour strolled through the door that lead to the mail room. He was covered head to toe in dust and his once blackish-gray hair, pulled back in a ponytail, was now nearly as white as the snow that so frequently fell in the area. Under his arm, he toted a large cumbersome package wrapped in (once) brown paper, secured with twine. Setting it down on the table, he smiled. It was a rather unfortunate smile, the two of them noted. Fluoride had not come mixed in with the water until a few years back when the hospital had been created and so, most of the older folks in the area had rather decayed dental.

Remus was on his feet in an instant. Striding hurriedly towards the counter, he straightened his shabby clothes- a faded maroon sweater with snags and holes in the sleeves where he had poked thumb holes (he hadn't thought to pack a pair of mittens).

"Sorry," The postal man began through a thick, thick accent, brushing some of the dust off of his apron (why he needed an apron to work at his station eluded Remus). "There was an accident back there and I got caught up in it. A pile of old letters from a few of the deceased towns peoples' collapsed and got mixed in with quite a bit of the recent mail that we were in the process of sorting. A guy was trapped under neath it all. Horrible thing to be killed by mail, it would be! Sorry for the delay." The guy chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. Although his accent was just about the hardest to decipher that he'd come upon yet, he had to say that the man had excellent grammar skills and really spoke English quite well. _ If only he practiced on that accent..._

"Thank you." He replied hurriedly and grabbed the package. He was about to begin tearing into the paper like a small child on Christmas, but he was stopped by a delicate, boney hand soft as cashmere and pale as pure cotton. He sighed at Amire. She was staring into his eyes with an intense look of 'wait'. And he would. He would wait until they arrived back at his room or hers, because if he didn't, something embarrassing could fall out or he could lose a part of it or some other such incident could occur. They rushed across the street, and through the clear glass doors of the medical facility.

The lobby was noticeably quieter when they entered but, thankfully, it was a reception area of a hospital, so the noise couldn't cease completely; the people on the other ends of the phones that were ringing off their hooks did not know that Amire and himself had waltzed through the doors. But, it still did not aid him in forgetting what he imagined life was like for the girl with her long, dark lashes and sleek black locks of inky hair. He stared unconsciously at her as they walked through the vacated corridors. Amire was stripping off her thick, layered coat as they strolled along; he could hear her jumbling the black, rough fabric in her arms. He listened to how silent the area truly had become beyond their own noises. The tip-tapping of their shoes on the plate-like tiles was becoming unbearable. One or two letters, she had said back in the post office, was all she received in a whole _year_. Remus pondered how many he got in a _month_. Something so simple he took for granted; he got plenty of mail, typically, and it had never excited him before until now where he was taken out of contact even by letter for the most part.

And yet, She seemed completely unfazed by it, like she didn't mind at all. But underneath, Remus could see she yearned for company. She clung on to him for dear life, after all, and was completely perturbed and enthralled by his stories of his friend and his adventures.

He fell to his bed with the large package in his lap. It was heavy and he could smell sugary... something. His nose was not quite so keen as to be able to pick up on specific ingredients through the heavy wrapping. It was very helter-skelter, the brown paper covering what was presumably a cardboard box with heavy bubble wrapping inside. It was rather a poor job of wrapping.

He cautiously untied the twine and slipped it off gingerly from the parcel. Then, off came the paper. Revealed, were a set of three letters, taped to a a large box. Now, it was painfully obvious Sirius was the one to fix the brown paper to the package; if it had been anyone else, they would have had the sense to put the notes _within_ the box instead of on _top _of it. He set the box aside on the mattress between himself and Amire, and began to flip through the envelopes. One was from Sirius, of course, then James, and lastly, his mother. He opened his best friend's first, as he was most anxious for it above all else.

As he began to read, she moved to behind him on the bed, balanced on her hands and knees to peer over his shoulder. He shooed his companion away (she was beginning to get rather reminiscent of Sirius in the aspect of peeping over him like that). Looking a tad dejected in her own way, she sat back down on her haunches and began to prod the box. She was about to shake the box, her hands formed around the corners bracingly as she lifted it up. His hand immediately shot out to grab one of her slender arms. Knowing it was coming from his lovable scraggly mutt of a friend, it could very well be a set of dung bombs which would explode if dropped, or something of the like. Looking up with a bewildered expression, she regarded him as he took a moment to compose the way he was to word this.

"Don't... It may be a _prank_." He stressed the word in hopes that she would remember what he had told her of his friends escapades. He didn't want to use the word "bomb" which is what he nearly had spouted out. He was so used to the lingo of his friends that the word bomb automatically signaled the thought of _dung_ bombs, thus, the use of the first word was rarely needed and they simply called them _bombs_. He hadn't told her that part and he had feared it may have alarmed her.

He returned to his beloved letter with a few glances at her bewildered state.

_To My Most Meticulous and Patient Moony,_

_I read the date on the letter and was utterly confused. You wrote this ages ago, and I just now received it! Surely, you didn't forget to send it and just got it out a week after it was so eloquently constructed? Or is it the snow. Really odd, that, snow in SUMMER. Wonder what causes that? You aren't __that__ very far north, are you, Moons?_

_Either way, I do hope the test don't get any worse. I absolutely dread going to the doctor; you remember how I whined when they had to give me that shot in the infirmary a few years back to reverse the effects of that one potion. Must be a dog thing, you know, fear of the loathed vet trip and all? _

_It must be terrible not getting to go out and about when you aren't hurting from prods and pokes from the merciless quacks. I can't imagine what I'd do without fresh air and the rest of it all. Say, what do they do during the full moon? There are a lot of Werewolves there like yourself, aren't there? So, do they put you in a dungeon or something? Or have they already got a cure and are just doing trials on it with you? Surely, they can't expect you to just sit in a room calmly for hours in a building full of others calling out to you all night long. The walls can't be that thick, can they?_

_Remus, really, just crawl into bed with her already and figure things out. Get some bullocks, good man! You can't tell me that the first girl I've ever heard of you to be close to is not on your riding list? If you even had a list, that is... Come on, Moons, just do it and I swear you'd like it. Unless she doesn't want you like that, in which case, it would end up being rape, which is not what I'm trying to lead you to do. But how could she not like you? You're tall, dark (although, not in the sense the saying was meant to be taken), and handsome. Not to mention that you have intellect on your side!_

_How was the latest moon, buddy? It must have been difficult with us not there for you. I do hope this Amire chick takes good care of you after the fact. Tell her that if she doesn't, she can go to hell and that she's not a real friend at all. Although, she does seem rather cool... stealing Popsicles and all that. You seem rather out of your typical character, not going into such detail that my brain explodes from all the big words. Weirdo. _

_Me and James are fine! Righto! We were going to send you a picture of us frolicking naked in a field of tall grass, but we were afraid that Mrs. Potter would notice the camera missing and find the pictures, so no photographic evidence for you to compile against us for a public indecency charge. Haha! We have found a rather pleasant little pond in which to swim as well when we grow wearisome of our frolicking. James has developed a rather nasty sunburn from falling asleep in the sun by the edge of the water in an attempt to get dried off. Apparently, zooming around on a broom and lying still warrant different outcomes. If you can't tell, it's sunny a lot, not to mention fairly dry. It hasn't rained once, and The Parents have been forcing us to wear this foul muggle concoction called sunscreen since we won't let them stick around all day to put repeated sun blocking spells on us. _

_I was out for a bit as Padfoot on my own, doing some exploring the other day, and was captured by two small children. I didn't want to terrify them, so I ended up going back to their small one room cottage back in the woods. They forced me into a worn leather collar from an old run away dog, and called me theirs. I suppose I looked stray, with my fur all wild and all. Any who (that's a funny word, innit?), I played fetch with them and let them pet me senseless all day and pigged out on their mother's cookies until it got dark, and their mother tied me up to the fence outside, saying it was time for them to go to bed. When all the lights went out, I shifted and freed myself and loped back to the summer house, into the waiting and worried arms of Mrs. P. They gave me odd looks when they saw the collar, though. It seems to stay on through the shift, unlike how my clothes don't appear on my dog form even though when I revert back into human form, I have clothes on still. Either way, I have become quite taken to wearing it. Apparently, there's a muggle fashion trend that has something similar going on, so I don't stick out terribly in town. _

_I have enclosed a box of sweets, some are from Mrs. Potter, and the others are from myself and James that we bought in town. I can't tell you what they are, though, as it would ruin the surprise! Hehe, you'll just have to open it and see for yourself. Also, we went to the very small book store in town. It's a small town consisting mainly of farmers, so not many reading types reside here. In other words, I'm afraid that there's not much on the front of reading that we can do for you. I wouldn't bother to send you porn, Moony, we've abstained from it for the whole stay. We left it all, out entire lengthy stash, at our secret hidey hole at Hogwarts. Too afraid of the big bad Mrs. finding it. _

_The silence will break you, Moony. And tell Amire that I hope she gets a life and stops being a Severus Snape. Then people won't avoid her, and you can both have more friends. _

_Wishing you were here and hoping you get yourself some,_

_Padfoot_

As soon as he had gotten passed the part of mentioning sweets, Amire began to sniff at the box, presumably having just been reading more discreetly the entire time. It looked comically like a dog sniffing. Except that Amire wasn't even Padfoot in dog form, she was a human sniffing the box with quick, choppy breaths through her nose. Head moving back and forth across the parcel, she kept this up. Remus didn't realize he was staring until she came to a stop and began to stare at him.

"You'll like it. If you don't like the part that Jame's mother gave you, I'll me more than happy to take it off your hands."

"You haven't even tasted it yet. For all you know, she could be a terrible cook!" He chuckled. It must be good. Did she have animalistic senses such as a great sense of smell?

"I can tell. I can tell, Remus, that it's going to be fantastic. Besides, you said she was a phenomenal cook." That he had said, that he had. He looked into her eyes, and they looked almost like he imagined his did on a full moon night when he saw something to be hungry for. Except her's weren't _blood_ thirsty; they were more _sweet_ crazed.

He tore into the box, and hit a box of Tupperware. Taped to the smooth red lid was a note from the woman herself.

_Remus, I hope you like fudge. I was going through the recipe book for something new to whip up for the other boys and came upon this one. The boys liked it, so I thought I'd send you some to show you that we wish you were here and that Sirius and James are missing you._

_Mrs. Potter_

With the look she was giving him—not to mention the box—he was going to have to surrender at least a tiny sliver of it to her, whether he was in a giving mood or not. Her eyes, those bright, dark, violet eyes that had shone with mirth often since he had arrived, darted from his own dark amber brown ocular orbs to the red Tupperware container in his large calloused hands. Licking her lips, she shifted her weight from one hand to the other, while leaning forwards from her squatting position. Amire looked like a large dog, begging its owner for some of the food on his plate. Those haunting eyes of hers, damn them! They were staring up at him, boring into his very soul, the very quick of his being. They were the most convincing puppy dog eyes he had ever encountered. That, of which it was quite plainly obvious, was her intent. She was only taking the incentive to be overly convincing.

Popping the plastic lid off of the cold container, his senses were assaulted with an intoxicating mixture of chocolate and mint. Fudge. James' mother had shipped him an enormous block of mint chocolate swirl fudge. From the smell of it- the rich, creamy scent wafting up at him from the contents of the plastic encasement- Amire had been correct to the highest possible ability in saying it was going to be delectable. She had expressed it in a way that made it seem as though it would be the thing dreams are made of; from the look the girl was showing, she truly believed this kind of fudge _was_ the thing that dreams were made of.

There was plenty of it- at least eight metric pounds worth- so Remus sliced a thick chunk off of one of the corners for her with a small plastic knife included in the parcel. The substantial block was creamy, and cut like slightly hardened butter- still smooth, but a tad harder to divide. Smooth was it, and not at all grainy as he knew that fudge had often came out when not prepared carefully (he never asked his mother to make any ever again after her first attempt). When he offered the morsel to Amire, however, she shook her head ever so slightly in refusal.

"No, Remus, you have it. It's your present. It wouldn't be right of me to take first taste."

Complying, he slowly-agonizingly so- lifted the gooey delicacy to his dry, pink lips. Wetting them slightly with his little pink tongue, he finally popped the piece into his mouth as if it were a piece of popcorn. At this, he received a severe "That is _not_ how fudge. You are _so_ not worthy of that morsel" look. He ignored the face she was making at him, as his mind was otherwise occupied on the fantastic festival that was occurring in his mouth.

Focusing on his taste buds, he was met with a whirlpool of melty, mouth-watering chocolate was melding seamlessly with the cool, electrifying sensation that was mint. It was quite the enigmatic experience: the way they contradicted each other so, and yet went together as though they were made specifically for one another. It was close to heavenly, but as mint was not really Remus' thing, it didn't quite chalk up to his favorite brand of chocolate bar.

Amire continued to look like a restless dog. He half suspected her to start whining pitifully if he did not surrender a bit of it to her. Remus chuckled lightly at her uncharacteristic antics. _So, fudge- Mint chocolate swirl fudge in particular- is her fix, eh? I'll have to remember that for her birthday._ Speaking, or rather, thinking, of the possible gifts he could get her, he realized he had yet to gain the knowledge of her date of birth. Unlike Sirius and the others, he may be able to pull off a decent gift for her. _ I'll have to ask her when it is when I can get the chance._

Once again, he slid the small knife through the soft, sugary block and it glided through it with ease to make a sizable chunk. Remus gently pried it from the containers and offered it to the practically salivating girl. Her slender, pale hand began to fly out to receive it, eager to get her hands on the morsel, but she quickly slowed herself down to maintain her tact and typical etiquette standards. Remus placed the decadent cube of sweet, sweet mint and chocolate into her none-too-patiently awaiting hands. She continued to fidget, her feet becoming entangled in the rough scratchy sheets as she wiggled around, going from kneeling, to sitting on her butt, back to kneeling and so on.

A few seconds after he so gingerly graced her hands with the piece of fudge, he proceeded to read James' letter (which was utter gibberish and nonsensical to the point that Amire hardly bothered to read over his shoulder) and unwrap the other packages the original cardboard box had contained. Now this was what he was talking about! Padfoot had gotten it dead on: he now had over twenty king-sized bars of his favorite chocolate. Rather promptly, the ripped open the top package and took a hesitant bite. He was automatically sent to heaven and reborn again as his taste buds exploded upon contact. He was broken from his reverie at once when he found Amire leaning over him- apparently he had fallen back in ecstasy- while still paying more attention to her fudge morsel (which still had a good portion of it left. He supposed she was savoring it), trying to awake him from his delirium.

"Helloooooooo? Mooons?" she questioned him. "Are you there?" Her face, still stuck in her usual, stoic expression, eyebrows raised in the only hint of any emotion behind the veil she masqueraded about in.

"Wha-? Oh, yes. Yes, I'm here. My chocolate is like your fudge. I get lost in it. I try not to be too eager, but you saw how that went down the proverbial drain."

"Hmm, yes. You mean how you were unable to resist the temptations of the rich depths of cocoa?"

"Yes. Exactly." She actually chuckled, he noted. It was very, very light and faint, but it was most definitely there. He was bringing her out of her shell. A slow process, it was, but it was progress.

Later, after Amire had gone back to her own rooms to have one of the nurses re-wrap her bandages, he sat down at the small desk- which was rapidly disappearing beneath stacks of books-to write a reply to the letter. He'd put off doing the one to His mother, and he really didn't have much to say to James as the letter made no sense and was impossible to respond to; he may as well put it in the letter to Sirius as a post script.

_To the Most Pestering, Pitiful, Preoccupied, and Impatient Padfoot,_

_Yes, I know, the postal here is absolutely terrible. The system isn't half of what it is at school, and they actually have a mail room. I asked Gregor, the man who works there, why the weather was so rotten and unforgiving. Apparently, it has something to do with muggles in the World Wars trying to come through the town and the fact they haven't really changed the wards much since then. So it meddles with the delicate cycles of mother nature, thus creating this hell's-frozen-over atmosphere._

_I had my first full moon soon after I sent that. It's not half bad. At the least, they've managed to form a sedative that can render us lycanthropes unconscious (that's what the last drug did to me). They're going to try something new tomorrow night, though, so I admit I'm just a bit anxious and jittery. I just hope they eventually manage to come up with something. Even if it only rendered me limp and half dead but __human.__ And actually, the walls are magically reimbursed, so we do stay in our rooms, and they simply put magic surveillance on us and a quieting charm on each room while they go around with various experiments. _

_I suppose the vet thing makes sense, too. By the way, Amire figured it out, I think. She's so smart and keen on things, that it can be rather rattling, actually. But don't tell her that, because she'd tease me about it in her odd little ways._

_Thank you, very much, Sirius, but I would rather lose my virginity to someone who is __not__, in my mind, like my sister. I don't think she'd really be interested in me, either. I mean, I sleep in the same bed as her a majority of the time (not like that you pervert), as we spend most of our time in my room and she kind of has to sleep where she falls (which is usually on my bed. She has to sleep when she gets the ability to do so semi-peacefully). She'd have given me some hint if she did. She's just the kind of person to come out and say something. I get the feeling that if she liked someone, she'd corner them and either tell them right out, or just kiss them as it were. Wipe that grin off your face. If you ever get to meet her, I'm never going to leave the two of you two alone. She'd kick your ass._

_I would also thank you not to call me a weirdo. And she's not much for taking care of me. Well, not in the physical way at least. Even though she's a few months older than I, I seem to have taken up the position of her big brother. Simply being there for her is… therapeutic, almost. I might remind you that her condition continues to rage after the full moon and is only at its worst under its silver tendrils of light. I like it. Besides, it means I can talk and snuggle up to someone who understands not to jab me in the ribs with their elbow. And once again, I suppose, that I should reiterate that the whole thing is completely family-like before your imagination sweeps you away. Stop grinning I say! I don't like her like that!_

_Do send pictures. She'd love to see what you all look like. She doesn't get to come around other people much, so she likes to listen to what it's like to have you guys around and what we so for fun. I think she would have something in common with you on the collar thing, too. She has one herself, complete with bone shaped information tag with her own name on it. I don't know from whence she procured it. Just another of her many mysteries of which I will never ever know the answer, I suppose. _

_And no, I will not insult my beloved little sister. I aim to be the best big brother she's ever said. From the track record, though, I've already passed those expectations. Either way, I'm going to be the picture perfect brother to her for at least the remainder of the summer._

_Hoping you wipe that god awful smirk off of your face,_

_Moony_

_P.S.- Tell James the fudge was great, although Amire liked it even more. Send another shipment of it please; it seems to keep her mind off the pain._

The next several weeks ensued much like the first few, and it was once again time for the full moon to come round in its endless, painful, and beautiful cycle. Remus Lupin, once again, sat at the sill of his window, smoking a fag, very reminiscent of his first night at the institution, when he had met his current companion (though not his girlfriend as Sirius so childishly joked in his frequent letters), Amire.

He glared up at the moon, the steel gray chunk of rock in the sky that was the bane of his existence. He couldn't quite understand how Amire- who was currently clutching the windowsill of the other window in his room, head resting on the cold slab, her knuckles white from clutching the stone for support in her time of pain- could be so very accepting of it. Her condition was even more painful than his in a way; her pain was emotional pain, which cannot be cured by a few Band-Aids and a lollipop. It wasn't that his wasn't emotionally detrimental, it was just that with hers, came a certain type of control that he didn't think he would be able to bring up from within him, and that was what was so very terrifying about her. It was no wonder the girl was broken.

And even more enigmatic, was how she was able to think of the lunar being as a magnificent, majestic wonder. He simply could not fathom how she found that rock, that menace that caused all their pain and suffering, beautiful and enchanting as she did so. She often gazed up at it, scrutinizing, but admiring, at the great threatening entity. Just as she was doing this precise moment now that the spasms had ceased for the time being. She didn't give the sickness the satisfaction of panting, now, as they got more and more intense. She would grin and bear it, the sweat pouring off of her, her face squinched up in agony. She never let out a peep, however.

It was only one night until the one time of the month in which they were separated for more than two hours while awake.

Tomorrow was the full moon. Tomorrow, he would be confined to his room, like so many others in the establishment. Amire, he remembered as he took another drag, would be further trapped under the covers of her bed as the jolts of fiery agony that wracked her body became far too violent for her to move other than to wring the cloth shackle and writhe in agony.

He winced. They had been getting worse and worse in the past few days, and it was simply heartbreaking to see her in such a distraught state. In the short time they had known each other, Remus had begun to think of her as family and when he thought of home, he simply could not picture her _not_ being there with him. She was his "Wolfie" as he had nicknamed her, given the way that the wolf appeared to act up less in her presence. Amire was family, now, at least in his mind and he was as devastated when she had a bad spell as he would be if his mother was the one having them.

He had stuck to her side, staying with her all the time, aiding her in getting around, wiping sweat from her brow as she slept, and forcing her to eat something to keep her strength up and to keep her from getting any skinnier than she already was. It was maddening to feel so helpless; it was as if he could do absolutely nothing to help.

But taking care of her was therapeutic for him as well as for Amire. Just as the fudge had taken her mind off of her condition, Moony's fussing over her well-being had given him something to distract him from his Lycanthropy.

Amire crossed the room and collapsed on the bed in exhaustion. Her dark, sweat-matted locks spread around her head in a dark halo, covering her head as her face was planted face down on the mattress. Remus put out the burning cigarette and looked down at the girl with pity shining in his amber eyes. Attempting not to stare, he looked on at the vision of suffering lying in front of him. It was hard not to stare with pity, let alone not to stare at all. She lifted her head meekly and glared at him for a second, before she promptly let it wilt back to its original position amongst the sheets. Faintly, Moony made out her voice, muffled by the covers.

"Moons, No Pitying." She groused. Groaning piteously, she snuggled under his cot's sheets. Had this been anyone else snuggling into his 'territory', the wolf within him would have been greatly annoyed this far into "Hell week". But for some reason, it tolerated her as much as it would another of his kind, even more than Prongs... though not more than Padfoot... she was about tied with him, actually. Amire jolted him from his thoughts rather suddenly.

"Hey, Moony? What are your dreams like this time of the month?" Her voice was hoarse and croaky from her throat closing over to hold in cries of agony. He couldn't help but be a bit put off by the odd, random questioning. Not to mention he was shocked she was still able to speak at all.

"Um, well, If I dream at all, they're usually about me running with my friends. Just running."

"No bloodshed? No massacres?" she rolled onto her side and propped herself up on and elbow, her head lolling back and forth in the shaky stand that was her hand. "You don't have nightmares about mauling the townspeople and pillaging them, setting the place ablaze with chaos? I mean animals, that's understandable- undesirable, but still better than a fellow student."

"Not typically, no. I've gotten so used to my typical routine at school with the others, that I don't even worry about it as much as I used to. The fear of it happening is still there, it's just buried deeper than it once was. Worst I've done in months in the worst ones was kill an innocent deer. And it wasn't even a buck, so it couldn't have been James. Besides, I would know if it had been him. Why do you ask?" He quirked a fine, brown eyebrow at her. _Merlin, she's starting to rub off on me..._

"It's nothing..." She seemed hesitant to ask for anything. Not a surprising attribute when you've basically had to do everything for yourself for your whole existence with hardly a single ounce of help.

Remus moved to sit awkwardly at the edge of the cot. He didn't want to get too close to her in case she had a flare and it became intolerable to be in physical contact with anyone. Eying for the cursory preludes to a spasm- sudden change in pallor of her face, reddening of all other skin, tight lips, clenching of hands on whatever is available- he cautiously reached out and set a large, cool, clammy hand on her forehead. Amire, he knew, hated to ask for help or a favor unless it was extremely small. It was, after all, he that initiated his constant vigilance; she hadn't requested him to take care of her, insisting on being inseparable.

"Amire, would you kindly just get on with it," he chuckled lightly. "You're making me worry and the atmosphere in here is becoming uncomfortably tense." She knew that she could ask him for anything, did she not? He needed only for her to be alright. He jerked away from his mother-hen worrying spell when she sighed lightly.

"Could I perhaps slip into your dreams tonight? Mine are damn near unbearable." Her violet gave locked with his, questioningly. She didn't move away from his touch, but by the twiddle of her pale thumb, he could surmise it was getting warm and a tad uncomfortable. He ran over her words. _Slip into my dreams?_

"What?" he questioned, confusion clear, but not insulting in the way he cocked his head to the side like a dog- yet another expression, he'd picked up from his 'little sister".

"I'm a legilimens," she stated plainly, her eyes shutting peacefully as she continued. "My dreams are horrid, so if I-" she had reopened her vibrant orbs- now more of a red-violet- to study him and froze when she saw the lost, thoughtful expression with which he was staring off into space. He rubbed the stubble that had finally began to appear on his chin as it had for Sirius and James last year.

"Legilimens... where have I seen or heard that term before?"

"Stroking your chin when you think? Really, Moons? Who _does_ that?" she meekly cocked her own, sweaty, dark eyebrow in a joking manner, the slightest hint of a smirk on her lips. "What textbook do you use for defense?"

"None of them!" he claimed, carrying on the banter in hopes of keeping the mood light despite the impending pain of tomorrow night. "I wouldn't ever dream of using a blessed volume to beat off anyone!" Extricating himself, however, from the bed sheets, he crossed to his old beaten and warn trunk and retrieved his Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook. Handing it to her gingerly, she immediately flipped past the weathered hardcover to the index in the rear of the text. Her finger slowly made a circle on the bendy surface of the cover as she skimmed down the 'O's. Curiously, Remus looked on, wondering what she was doing searching for Legilimency in the O section instead if the L's. Her slender index digit- no pun intended- scrolled down the column of words and page numbers.

"Ah, here we are," She stopped on "Occlumency" and flipped to the respective page, her fingers deft even in sickness. She indicated a paragraph below a scrolling, bold heading before handing the heavy book off to him. He perched it in his lap and turned on a lamp, not wanting to ruin his eyesight. _ I'll never understand how she can sit in the pitch darkness and read... _The paragraph read:

"_Occlumency is the ability to block another from magically invading your thoughts and memories. Such a power does exist, although it is extremely rare and difficult to control. The skill, called Legilimency, can be learned, but is more commonly a natural talent..."_

"So, let me make sure I've got this correct. You can read minds?"

"Pretty much... Annoying, really, when people are furious at something, if they're extremely depressed, or have some other extreme emotion storming around in their heads. It sounds like they're screaming in my ear. And it's like someone screaming down the hall from you: they aren't yelling directly at you, but you can still hear them loud and clear."

"And you can tune into my dreams like a radio station?"

"Yep. If I use my Legilimency I can see your dreams, thus, I won't have my own dream."

"Will it-"

"-Hurt? No, not unless you resist it. If it was painful, why would I ask to see your dreams? If it hurt you'd wake up and defeat the idea, would it not?"

"I suppose so. Alright, if it will help ease your pain, I don't see why not." Slipping under the covers, he nestled into his side of the scratchy cotton pillow. Remus let his mind wander as he usually did just before he drifted off.

He spun from thoughts of Amire and how he was going to miss her so when they parted at the end of the summer, to Padfoot and he running side by side through the breeches of the dank, dark forest in the dead of night. He began to doze, finally succumbing to the sticky, alluring tendrils of sleep. Remus felt a slight tug at his brain, similar to the pay a portkey tugs at your naval, and his thoughts blurred a bit. His mind went hazy and fuzzy as if congested with a thick fog for a few moments and he was faintly aware of the fact he was being drawn back to the waking realm. Resisting the urge to wake up and ignoring the sense of being watched, he calmed himself and the fog drifted apart, making way for him as he floated freely again. He now had a fluffy, happy memory of the four of them- the marauders- drinking butter beer late at night in the common room in a post-win celebration.

He physically felt Amire let the taught coils of stress and tension and pain roll off of her back, her worldly body becoming slack and relaxing into the mattress. Her fingers, once wringing the bedsheets harshly in an outlet for her physical pain, were now loosely wrapped around the corner of the pillow and a handful of the cover. He face would have quirked up at the image she was seeing, he thought in the recesses of his mind; she'd always wanted to know what the lot of them looked like. His descriptions had been complete shite, after all.

_And then the common room faded and he was running through the wooded haven of the forbidden forest, the wind whipping through his coarse fur, the mulch-like floor of the woods pounding beneath the weight of his massive paws. He could only smell the earthy aromas drifting to his sensitive nose from every surrounding direction in the thicket and briars of this wonderful timberland. _

_His ears perked, listening for the three sets of paw-falls that should have been following him en suit. There was supposed to be the set of small, minute and barely audible pitter of the rat; the loud, sharp clops of the heavy buck's cloven hooves; and the noisy, crashing footfalls-accompanied by the cheery panting- of the canine. The wolf could only locate the signs of the large, grim-like dog. _

_Stopping abruptly and turning on a dime, he swiveled just in time to have an immense furry mass slam into his chest. Padfoot had gone careening into him after slipping and sliding in the mud which the wolf's sheer weight had kept him stable in. The wolf was now growling at Padfoot, warning him to remove himself from the wolf's person. The large black dog was sprawled across his midsection, shaking its head in and attempt to get rid of the dazing effects of the crash. _

_Pads backed off slowly, bushy tail tucked between his hind legs, ears held back on his lowered head. Beseeching Remus' forgiveness, he rolled onto his back with his belly up in the canine sign of submission. Remus shook himself off as he got to his feet once more and towered above the large black dog that in his human form ruled over him. Placing one of his forepaws on Sirius' chest gently but firmly, he let out a low, rumbling, guttural growl that rose from the depths of his chest. He displayed the dominance that revealed itself only under the influence of the bright disk of silvery night light._

_Padfoot whined up at Remus pitifully though his tail was wagging rapidly, obviously happy. The wolf released the dog and, giving a snort, gave a lupine version of an eye roll. He made to stalk away on his long legs, and Padfoot trotted along behind him dutifully, head held high and carefree. Occasionally, he leaped up to lick at his leader's tawny, muzzle stained with blood. _

Remus's head began to swim slightly and somehow, he knew that Amire had succumbed at long last to the dreamless sleep she had longed for. Mere seconds after, the leak of Amire's prying mind and the dizzying sensation of having one's dreams watched receded completely. Mind once more out for a stroll down memory lane, he was transported back to the time when his friends had first confronted him about his "furry little problem" in earnest. He reminisced over the emotions and feelings that had flitted through him, replacing one another every few seconds like planes in an airshow display of fighter jets.

There had first been the cold- the freezing, numbing sensation that made him stop dead in his tracks and had leeched into his every fiber; the clutched of fear that had twisted and knotted his insides- as James and Sirius cornered him, Worms staying behind them. Backed into the darkest corner of their dorm room, he had shaken as they confirmed his worst fear: they were aware that he was a werewolf. But soon, the frigid feeling of his body and the cold sweat at his brow thawed out and dried, giving way to a warmth. Filing him to the breadth at that point had been a sort of hope as he realized they thought no differently of him (save for Peter who was cowering more than usual). Not long after that, Sirius was giving him a brief bear hug and James a clap on the back. Consumed by warmth and joy, he was, when they explained their mischievous, secret escapade of having become the youngest unregistered animagi all for him- not to mention the demonstration (upon which Padfoot had begun sniffing his bits due to still unmastered instincts). He had felt so wanted and loved that dark cloudy day in fifth year.

Remus subconsciously flipped through his memories as though they were an old, beloved, and warn photo album. It wasn't until his sleep was was very, very deep before the wolf really began to influence his slumber.

_The vision, though not in black and white variants, was muted and displayed in faded values of his human norm. Even still, his sight was clearer, somehow, and it was easier to see into the shadows, like someone had turned the brightness up on a computer monitor. It was meant for that of a creature of the night. _

_Something was wrong, however. He was not in the cover of the forest on the edge of the school grounds. He was not surrounded by his "pack". He was alone. Alone in the hospital corridor. His bulky, lupine form stalked through the sterile, white halls, shrouded in darkness as he sniffed here and there, searching for prey. All around him, he could hear the braying and yowls of his imprisoned comrades: the other nameless Lycans in residence here. The walls here were only soundproof to those who ran the facility; the deaf humans, so feeble and helpless. _

_The Wolf's keen nose detected the slightest taste of fear in the wind. Following the tantalizing scent, he padded down the aisle, noticing no open doors. _Why am I not tranquillized? _He mused, not his wolf-mind talking. He stopped to stare out a window in a small sitting area. Above him, the silver curse floated amidst a sea of twinkling stars. Transfixed, his pupils __dilated__ in the light. The stayed fixed on the orb. That is, they did until he heard the clatter of a metal nurse's tray vibrating as it fell crashing to the tile floor, and the noisy footsteps of heels, along with a rush of the heavy smell of fear and cold sweat. He began the hunt._

_His human mind, trapped inside the jail of the wolf's body, screamed for him to cease in his chase, to stop clambering down the hall in hot pursuit of the terrified nurse. He didn't want to hurt anyone. If he killed anyone, he'd be sentenced for sure to Azkaban. He was only a boy, he couldn't possibly survive in such a place! He screamed, begged for the fluid joints of the lumbering monster to stop, willing them to break down in their function and render the beast relatively harmless. _

"_Moony! Moony!" the nurse appeared to be calling to him. As his massive jowls closed around her neck and they toppled to the floor, her silver hair became black._

"Moons! Dammit, Moony! Wake up! It's just a dream!" Amire shook him harshly, holding to her breast what appeared to be a large sketchbook. Remus bolted upright, matted with sweat from head to toe. "I've been trying to wake you for a while now. It seems that you had one of those rare nightmares."

"Worse. I attacked someone in this one."

"Shit. You don't think that it was caused by the stress of having me invading your thoughts, do you?"

"No, I doubt it. They had to give me a sleeping draught last month; I couldn't sleep the night before the full moon. I probably should have asked for one again is all."

"Oh. If you say so." Turning back to the book, Amire made a few more pencil marks before looking up into his curious looks. "What?"

"What's that?" he tried to look over the top of her work, but she pulled it up close to her person teasingly. Once he stopped leaning forward, futile in his attempts, she let him see. It was a sketch of Sirius, the way he had looked in his first dream of the night, his face rosy and happy, slightly buzzed with the effects of the butter beer. His matted, shiny black hair looked as though he could reach out and touch it and have the silky sensation of it running under his fingertips. He almost tried to, in fact, but Amire pulled it away so fast it made his dazed, sleep-logged head spin for a half-second.

"It'll smudge. No touching please."

"Yes Madam Museum Curator." the teased. "Amire, I remember you saying something about liking art and being able to draw a bit, but this..." he stared fixated at the lifelike likeness of his best friend. "You could so this for a living, you're so good." She quirked a brow and a slight blush crept up on her chalky cheeks. She looked away before she began to speak, then at he sketchbook to admire her own prowess.

"It's not that easy, Moony. I've tried. Art isn't exactly a steady business. People's opinions are constantly shifting and changing and their preferences in styles along with them. Not to mention it's considered a luxury to have art and a lot of people won't buy it- especially in the midst of a war or recession." He pondered this while continuing to ogle the drawing. It looked so real.

"So," he tore his golden amber eyes away to look at her. Measuring, she looked considerably better than she had the day preluding the last Full. _The dreams really must affect her. _"What have I missed?"

"Not much, some idiot down the hall has a fever from a drug they gave him and had to be sedated to stop his wild hallucinations. That and I've been drawing things from your dreams... our dreams... that just sounds _so_ odd."

"Things? Meaning you have more masterpieces of my friends?"

"The others aren't masterpieces, just really quick sketches- dammit." Amire had moved to flip the book closed and her bandages had come loose and begun to unravel. "I'll have to go find a nurse. Merlin only knows how long that's going to take with that guy constantly needing sedatives..." she grumbled, shifting to get off the bed.

"I could get them for you, if you like," he offered, motioning to the wraps. He moved his legs out of the way, in case she still wanted to get up and get a nurse. Amire, however, did not move any closer toward the edge of the mattress. Instead, she turned to have her back to him, although her face was looking back over her shoulders. She stared at him for only a moment.

Her eyes, he noticed were less bloodshot than they had been the day before. The fact they were more red-violet than their typical dark, smoldering purple, could not be helped. It pained him to know that they were one of those things about her that changed with the changing moon. His, he remembered did that too, going from innocently human hazel brown to the beastly, feral amber of a natural born wolf. Hers was so obvious- at least to him. It made Remus wonder if anyone had ever noticed his own morphing irises.

It was only a few moments of her staring back at him and his lupine eyes before he understood what he'd agreed to do.

"Oh, right!" He said abashed. Remus, unfortunately, the poor fellow, had yet to fully grasp why she had turned around. He'd only seen that her arm wraps were loose.

"Moony, I hate to point it out, but not just the ones on my arms are unraveling. I understand if you choose not to help me with the rest, but, y'know." She nudged her head at the quickly unwrapping bandages once covering her arms.

"Oh! No, no, I can get those, too. I just wasn't sure you would feel comfortable-"

"Moony, I slept in your bed on the first night we met. We were practically total strangers. It's pretty hard to make me uncomfortable." Insert patented eyebrow arching here. Remus shrugged.

His fingers had just reached the thin black ribbons of her burgundy back-lacing corset, about to begin undoing it, when an alarm went off and a brigade of nurses, one carrying a first aid kit, two more carrying stun poles (the kind they use on cattle), a few with what appeared to be the apparel of K-9 unit practice gear (meaning the dog bite guards), and the last perching a precarious tray- as she struggled to keep it steady while running- with a long needle and syringe. He heard the man down the hall Amire had been talking about kicking and screaming, the clash of metal as he knocked over trays and instruments, and a few bumps and vibrations that carried down the halls that could only be nurses getting beaten down. It made him realize that the door was wide open. He'd been about to expose Amire in front of the whole of... whoever cared to look in, and she wasn't even batting a lash to his faux pas. He sighed and rolled his eyes at the scene the man had caused, got to his feet (somewhat wobbly; he _did_ just get out of bed), and shut the sliding door.

"If you didn't notice, no one ever looks at us, let alone in either of our rooms. Besides, I doubt anyone would pay attention to us when Mr. Crazy down there is going to be at it again in about ten minutes. They're running out of handy potions. It's seeming like they're going to have to have someone brewing them around the clock at the rate he's going through them." Amire glanced back at him then looked back to her lap to flip through her sketchbook. It was quickly snapped shut when he returned to the bed. He considered her for a moment, as she stared back. It was completely true. It was also completely _sad_. _If only she could get a fresh start and a new look on life._

"Moo-ony," her singsong voice rang out. "I hate to nag, but could you do these bandages? They're making me itchy all hanging loose." Unlacing the corset slowly, Remus squinted his eyes a bit. A blush was spreading across his pale cheeks. But it wasn't the same flush that Sirius would have had doing this same deed; it was more like, well, a brother helping his injured sister undress. And that was basically what it was: brother and sister.

Taking the cloth bands in his hands gingerly, he began wrapping them about her arms, winding them loosely.

"I have a feeling..."

"I got that. The deal is... well, have you seriously never had any injuries after you change that you had to get some bandages on?"

"Yeah, but I was usually knocked out, so I didn't see them put on me, let alone doing it myself."

"Well, with me it's a bit extreme anyway. What I like is to have them really, really tight. It cuts off the circulation a tad, so the burning I get because of my condition is less severe." He wasn't very interested in the words spilling forth from her lips, however, but was more focused on the hundreds of scars criss-crossing every inch of her skin.

They looked like claw marks- huge, jagged, beastly slashes. He could hardly see an inch that they didn't mar. They all melded into one big slab of tough scar tissue. _How... what..._ what could have made these ghastly marks? Gingerly, he reached out and traced one that was particularly distinct that arched from the bottom of her left shoulder blade to the middle right of her back, and back to her left hipbone. He'd seen a few thin, faded scars peeping out of the wraps, but these... these scars were long, thick gore marks that scored her like a jail cell wall. He could see now why she wore the wraps.

"Earth to Remus." she sighed, "If you must know, the bandages really aren't to keep them covered; I wear them to keep my condition from running too wild and ruling over my life- it keeps the pain in check- and it keeps me from ripping any new ones."

New ones? He inspected the scars. None of them looked new or scabbed over to where they could be ripped open, so what did she mean when she said 'New Ones'. Unless...

"Yes, Moony, those were self afflicted. And I managed to stop a while back."

"Wh-"

"Fire, Moons. Fire. It burns under my skin and it just makes me want to rip off my own hide to make it stop."

"Wolfie..." He wrapped his arms around her neck from behind, trying his darnedest to ignore the fact that Amire was naked from the waist up.

"OK, enough with the touchy-feely. Bandages. Please. Before I get another flare?" She nudged him a bit, a slight upward curl in her thin, dark lips.

"Oh, right." He went back to his nursing duties, starting by undoing what little he had done. Now, he wound the dressing tighter, constricting her arm, and Amire let out a shaky, rattling sigh of relief. It reminded Remus of the first time Sirius had done gillyweed. He was probably one of the very very few that didn't hack and cough on their first time.

He continued on, twisting and forming the needed positions for the bandages, coating her in them as if they were ribbons. She looked as though they were a diamond necklace and she a princess with the manner of grace she was took them in. They coated her in the needed protection and it was now no wonder she was eternally pale and white in pallor- those things blocked off a hell of a lot of blood flow.

He replaced the burgundy number gently, her holding it in place in the front as he laced it up, the slim black laces sliding gracefully and delicately between his surprisingly capable fingers. Remus slipped out of the room, as she insisted she would be able to manage to refashion her lower dressings. Shutting the door behind him softly, he glanced down at the commotion still carrying on down the hall.

He knew her story. He knew how she was so often shipped from house to house. He knew how, deep down, she wanted to have someone to call her own- a safe haven where she would stay more than a month or two. He knew how she needed a family to support her and love her. How she needed people to keep drawing her out from that little shell she had created for herself and kept receding into.

It was, he admitted, quite pathetic that the first girl he'd ever really been close to would end up being his would-be sister. It wasn't even the sort of bond that platonic lovers hold- even he could tell that it was different from that. He didn't love her the way Sirius kidded about. No, she looked up and down at him at the same time. Just like the little sister he'd always wanted. And he wanted to be the best big brother he could possibly be. There had to be a way to save her from her dark, scary world.

The problem was, how to go about rescuing her. These were his thoughts as he snuck down the corridor and into the kitchen's freezer. This all was cause for Popsicles.

Remus, not bothering to knock (she _had_ to be done my _now_), waltzed into his room, much happier. He realized his mistake and pointed her own frozen treat at her, as if to say "obey me!".

"Don't read my mind, Amire, It's going to be a surprise. Your birthday present even, maybe." he smirked, satisfied with himself, obviously.

"I shall indulge you in your deviant behavior, since you've decidedly become the first to ever even dare do something kind for me." drawled she, a hand going back dramatically... as she pulled on her skirt. He truly hadn't even noticed, this time.

Plucking her Lime Popsicle from his hand, she ripped it open. She needn't say her thanks; it was clear in the way her eyes shone. Amire was a sucker for sweets. Remus plopped down beside her and snatched the sketchbook laying at the foot of the bed now, from her unsuspecting reach, and let it drop unceremoniously into her lap.

"So, you ever going to show me those 'unimpressive' sketches from my dream?" He suckled noisily on his grape to her lime, and propped himself up on an elbow, grinning in that way he only does when truly happy. So, faintly smiling back in that almost-but-not-quite-showing-any-emotion smile of hers, she showed him. Only Sirius had brought this side of him out before. Not one single person had made Amire smile from the time she was extremely little. Until now. Things had changed. They still were changing.

Sweat poured down Remus' still-human brow. It was about half and hour until sunset and they were trying to put him under in preparation for his 'treatments'. The wolf was resisting the pull of the drugs they were pumping into his veins, fighting as best as it could from within, begging and pleading for him to stop them from doing this to him. He wanted to come out and run about.

His bound hands scraped, clawing and denting the metal table he lay upon. Remus had always hated needles. He hated them even more now; he had had several injections in the past hours (really minutes) and an IV drip hung from his arm. the Lycanthrope blood racing through him caused his healing to speed up and continuously tried to heal the site where the IV was inserted. More pain resulted than would for any human.

He really could not see the purpose of having his wrists and ankles tied down with these leather restraints; the wolf could easily snap them like a shark on a child's fishing line. Even now, in his slightly-deranged-but-still-human form, if the really tried, it would not be difficult to break free.

They cut deep into his quickly-toughening skin, raw and unpleasant-burning. _ I pray to god that those don't make scars. If they do... Mother would murder me! They would make it look as though I tried to commit suicide. _

He tried not to think of pleasing his family-particularly his wonderful (if overprotective) mother- as he watched the sun setting from the confines of the cell-like room. His heart was pounding in his chest in the way he could only assimilate with something similar to the way he attributed to certain people being near him and watching the sun set on a full. It felt heavy, but like it would jump out of his chest. This was different, however, and was caused by the medications, he knew. His eyes, burning, bright, and vivid in amber color, fluttered closed as the drugs finally won over lupine instinct.

It was like dreaming, really, the effect of the drugs had on his system. Remus dreamed and pondered life- stupid things like hoping that his mother had remembered to turn the stove off and what Amire would prefer for the Holidays. That, and the Wolf threw fits- tantrums that lasted in the foreground, destroying trees and ravaging innocent squirrels and badgers with his wrath- while he ignored it.

Remus, subconsciously of course, wondered if Amire was doing well (as the beast raged on, mauling small woodland creatures with excessive force).

"_Of course she isn't," _the wolf drawled in his ethereal, husky voice as it tore apart (what he believed to have once been) a squirrel. _"She's squirming in unbearable pain, writhing about on her petty bedsheets in agony. Probably trying to rip her own hide off again! Oh, how I wish I could hear her cries." _ Though the thing cackled cruelly, it was somehow... unconvincing. The wolf, after all, was more fond of her than he could bare to show; it tolerated more than most, in some cases as much as it did Padfoot.

"_Shut up! She said she didn't do that anymore,"_ he yelled back at the beast, enraged. _"She's braver than I! She doesn't even scream-" _ His dream self was cut short by his real self's screams. No amount of sedatives could completely block out the pain of a lycanthrope's transformation.

Something was amiss. Gone was the dark glade he and the wolf had been lounging in whilst he'd been in his dreaming state. In its place was his own hospital room. It was all together too vivid; it was _too_ vivid to be just a dream.

He noticed immediately that he had thick fur. Or rather, he had thick fur in some places and a scarce sprinkling of it in most other areas. His limbs were not comfortable by any means all stretched out at his sides as he was spread eagle on the bed- it would have been relatively fine, were he human at the moment, and not the wolf. Within seconds, the wolf- who had been lowered in power and influence only due to the effects of the drugs- took back over completely as he usually did every full moon.

Anger and and the unsuppressed sense of a caged animal flooded through his veins as if they themselves were the drugs. They consumed him. Adrenaline and testosterone raged, battling his human self off and driving him wild. He, or rather his second self, strained at the thick leather bonds and soon tore through them with ease as if they were forged from paper. Storming at the window, Remus barraged the metal grating with claw and fist. It held up to its purpose, however, and sprang right back unharmed when it was pounded upon.

The door opened and a nurse with a tranquillizer gun took aim. Senses no longer muddled and cloudy, time seemed to seemed to slow down immeasurably, and he could see the sharp, precise projectile whizzing dead at him. He moved on instinct and and was able to dodge it by banking sharply to his right. Having just barely escaped it's sharp needle point filled with sleeping elixir, the wolf charged at his assailant as she struggled with the bulky weapon, trying to reload. That nurse never got the chance before he had her pinned to the floor with his shear bulk. He began ripping at her clothes, trying to get past the thick layer of dog-protection wear to her fragile, human neck. The only thought in his mind was _Kill. _

There was a pained moan from a half-open doorway down the hall (which he was now in, since he had leaped out into the hall to maul the orderly). The wolf stopped dead in its tracks. Leaving the attendant dazed, befuddled, and paralyzed with fear, he padded quietly, cautiously down the hall. Slowly, a whine escaped his black lips. the other nurses (who had been stunned immediately by his fully aware and active state) stared on as he gently nosed open the door enough to fit his massive form through.

Amire, spread out on her cot, had her eyes shut tightly, completely oblivious to another being having entered the small, compact room. The pain was blinding and deafening, her own internal struggle with both pain and urges making all else unnoticeable. That much was certain, painted clearly not only in her strained face but also in her body posture. Stiff then limp as the pain subsided if only for a second, her body was drenched in sweat.

The wolf whimpered. The girl's eyes shot open. The red-violet orbs held not fear, but shear amazement. And who wouldn't be awed when a humongous werewolf was in their room and acting as docile as a worried house pet? He sniffed about her a bit. They say that animals can smell fear. This is not only myth, but fact; Remus could smell a fearful schoolgirl from a mile away this time of the month if he so wished. Fear, however, was not the primary emotion that wafted off of his dear companion. No, his animalistic senses were picking up on something else. Animals can smell all emotions as certain chemicals and pheromones are released into the air when any one of the various emotions were expressed. The strongest, was , of course, fear. The second and third were joy and pain. He was currently being bombarded by the stench of agonizing pain. He could tell, though, that it had been far worse in the past than in the latest few moments upon his arrival.

Whining once more, the wolf nudged Amire's abnormally rosy, fevered cheek with his large, moist nose. Acknowledging her pain, by way of wolf-speak, he asked her what was wrong. He got no direct answer, only a weak smile of sorts, and a hand in his ruff. He licked her shoulder- some of the little of her skin that was exposed and not wrapped tightly under the bandages- in asking for another response. This time, he was met with a feeble hand on his head, scratching his head right in between the ears. Though it felt extremely good, he had to admit, he shrugged it off after a minute. He couldn't let his pride of being a strong masculine, "definitely-not-a-house-pet" wolf down just because she was the petting his crown in just the right way. He couldn't allow himself to seem submissive. He had to be the boss. It was... a guy thing. Nudging her again, with his cold, wet snout, he tried to evoke her in to answering. It wasn't like she couldn't understand him, _right_? She _smelt_ like a wolf (along with extremely faint undertones of other animals). However, she did not _look_ like one.

The wolf, for once, had been stumped by something, confounded by something other than being unable to riddle out an escape from the shrieking shack. Haunches slowly sinking to the floor at her bedside, he continued to find a reason for her to be so pained, so distressed. He could see no flesh wounds. And her temperature, to him, _seemed_ as it should; he didn't suspect illness because of this fact. But his perception was muddled by her scent, tricking him into thinking her a wolf and thus the higher temperature average. He thought she was _supposed_ to be at the same heat level as he.

After hours of not hearing the ripping and tearing of flesh, blood-curdling screams, or the breaking of furniture, the nurses decided it to be relatively safe- safe enough- to go check on Amire. They hadn't risked passing by the still-open door for over an hour now and having to find redirected routes to all their other patients was becoming a bother. The nurses, not even having the courage to walk past the room's entrance, of course had not had enough moxie to look _in_ the room. It had been long enough leaving the girl on her own against the beast in her room.

"The poor dear probably threw herself at the beast. You could tell she wished for death," one nurse tutted.

When they got to the entrance to Amire's chambers, however, they got quite the surprise.

Nestled on the floor, were the wolf and Amire, the latter curled into the same position as the former. Somehow, she did not look out of place or uncomfortable in this position. In fact, one might go as far to say that she looked as if she was truly meant to be like this, a wolf in the forest scampering about after small animals. Amire looked nearly completely at ease-at least to the largest extent she could on a full moon night- and more natural in this wolf-like persona than sprawled out in the cot.

This unthinkably rare, picturesque vision of serenity was soon disrupted, however, when the massive beast's ears twitched then perked up. Though the nurses had frozen immediately, his keen ears had picked up on their heavy, terrified breathing. Moony's large amber eyes shot open and his teeth, glistening yellow-white and dripping with beads of contagious saliva, were bared and ready to bite. He began to lumber to his feet. Amire's hand reached out, shaky from her ailed state, lodged itself purposefully in his chest fur. Abruptly, the wolf halted, eyes not leaving the nurses but for a moment. In this moment, however brief, their eyes connected and a silent understanding of the command 'No' was understood. The wolf let out a low grumble, but settled down, sinking to his haunches.

Terrified, the women slammed the sliding door shut with a harsh, sharp clap and flattened themselves against it as if their added weight to the steel made it any more of a viable barricade against the beast that was Remus.

"No one go in there!" they whispered harshly in their native tongue after rejoining their coworkers.

"Oh, the girl got torn to shreds, didn't she? I know no one liked her- the child was terrifying-"

"It's not like any one will really miss her. She didn't have any family or anything. She was dumped. Just another foster care burden of a child."

"It's nothing of that sort at all!" one of the ones who had braved the peek raved back, absolutely astonished. "She's not dead!"

"What?" several of the orderlies replied in unison.

"It's true!" the other brave-hearted woman piped in. "It's almost a if... as if he's protecting her."

"No...!"

"It must be resultant due to her heritage." The eldest -whom looked like she could be a heavy-set, distant relative of Minerva McGonagall- added for the first time. The rest of the pack of girls and women looked to her expectantly, waiting for her to elaborate. She did not, and another nurse glared impatiently.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Well, tell us about-"

"Not now, there is work to be done elsewhere. Perhaps I may be able to paint you a picture of the girl's family history later, but not at the moment."

Within the next hour, all the nurses in the institution knew of her history.

"Did you hear about the freak girl?"

"You mean how the beast obeys her command?"

"What else could I mean!"

"Where do you think the powers come from?"

"Did you not get the whole story? It comes from her heritage, of course! I mean, her ailment seems to flow to the same relative pattern as the animals'; Why would she not be a Lycan, too, then, at heart?"

"The Lord only knows she smells like a filthy canine; I have been on Laundry duty for a few weeks, now, and those sheets from Remus Lupin's and her bed clothes smell something terrible!"

Remus shut his trunk softly so as to not wake Amire. It was his last day here at the institution, and, though it would be fantastic to finally see his mother and father, he couldn't help but feel saddened to leave the girl's side. _If,_ that was, they parted.

As he stood slowly, using the trunk for leverage, he gazed at her form, sprawled out on the bed, her dark hair strewn about her like a dark angel's halo. A grin split across his cracked lips as his Marauder's mind's plot ran through it. Wolfie was sure to be in for a big surprise. Hopefully. He prayed that she hadn't read his mind with her inherent legilimency and ruined it for the both of them.

That, and he hoped she liked it. Mood not even swaying with the negative thought- he was sure Amire would love his surprise- he continued on, packing away more books into a smaller trunk. A cheery tune began to permeate the corners of the room, a lightly whistled song floating merrily from his lips. Behind him, he heard the sharp, grating groaning and squeaking of the old cot's mattress springs under Amire's weight as she shifted.

"Morning, Wolfie," he chirped.

"What're you doin' Moons?" She replied as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Her voice was slurred slightly from being groggy, still.

"Packing. Today's the day Mum and Dad are coming to pick me up, remember?"

"Right," Her eyes became dark, gloomier that instant as she became even more stoic than her norm, not wanting to let her emotions through. It was quite obvious how attached she'd become to Remus. "Well then, best make the of today since we may never see each other again, shan't we?"

"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that, Amire," he smiled knowingly. The raven-haired girl's expressive inky brows furrowed and Remus knew that that could only mean she was about to use her gift.

"Wolfie, don't you dare ruin my surprise," he wagged a finger at her, his brilliant smile ensuring her his intentions were of a light heart. She, thankfully, shrugged it off.

"Either way, what's say we nick some Popsicles from the cafeteria, eh?"

"Popsicles? For breakfast?"

"you should know me by now, Moons in that I have no rules in what I can and cannot eat when. Besides... 'tis noon." She pointed at the grated window with the hand that wasn't clutching to the stuffed wolf she called Amala. She was, of course, correct; the sun was high in the sky, casting almost no shadows across the courtyard. _How time flies when one is having fun plotting. No wonder none of the others get any work done at school!_

" Is packing really so fun that you lost track of the time?" She frowned. He turned from the window's view back to her. He'd just barely caught a glimpse of the unhappy frown before she switched the expression quickly to that of a single, fine black eyebrow arched in 'amused' questioning.

"I suppose it is fun. You know how I love to sort things and whatnot," he replied sheepishly.

"Well then, I'm going to raid the kitchen," she piped, whipping back the sheet. He watched her movements, graceful and silent, swift and precise, as they always were the day of the new moon. According to Amire, it had the opposite effect on her from the pain of the full moon and was rather like floating.

She slunk out the partially opened door and padded down the pristine white hall. Remus watched her until he was sure she was gone, her having drifted around the corner at the end of the corridor. Hurriedly, but bot untidily, he stuffed a few more books into his smaller trunk. Why hurry, you ask? They were not his books, but his dear, frozen treat-stealing friend's. Lupin scampered down the hall and ducked into her room, immediately started to jam Amire's other belongings- the ones she wouldn't notice missing for a while- into her own battered, antique trunk. She wouldn't give a thought to her spare clothes, finished books, sheets, and pillows; Amire was almost never in here for more than a second as they'd moved a large portion of her things into his room so there would be less going back and forth.

Shutting the heavy, cumbersome lid slowly and silently, he shoved it back into place under the raised armoire where he'd retrieved it from, and shut the bedroom door behind him as he exited. Remus made it back to his own room with plenty of time, Wolfie left none-the-wiser.


	4. His Plan, Her Surprise

**Author:** Werewolftrixie (WWT)

**Story title:** Violet Pain

**Chapter title: "**His Plan, Her Surprise"

**Rating: ** PG-13... just in case... for now.

**Genres: ** Romance, Drama, Tradgety

**Characters:** Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, OC

**Pairing(s):** Although it may seem like they were meant to be, this is NOT Remus/OC! It is (going to be) OC/ Sirius, Remus/ Sirius

**Warnings: **UnBeta-ed -ness, OC as major character, Marauders' era, slash

**Beta:** None: But I'd love for anyone to contact me via PM about wanting the position!

**AN: ** I said it was coming soon! Is this soon enough for ya! Huh! Huh? Sorry, spazzy moment...

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. Not even Amire and her stuffed wolf; the people in my brain owns those. Oi! You! Shut up! I'm trying to prattle off the important stuff to the wonderful readers! -raps on head-

**Violet Pain**

**Part Four: His Plan, Her Surprise**

Amire sat with her legs crossed indian-style- much to his dismay ("What will mother think with her sitting as such in a skirt!")- reading his reports one last time to edit for technical errors before he could edit for grammar. He thought to Sirius, whom his mother begrudgingly liked, and all his worries about her uncouth appearance disappeared. Sirius was, after all, much, much worse.

The two of them were in the lobby of the hospital, awaiting Remus's parents to arrive. And he, Remus Lupin, was pacing incessantly, his good shoes being worn down as he wore a trench in the tile floors. His 'sister' had long since given up on trying to halt this irritating habit.

Crashing to the floor with a harsh thudding noise, Remus groaned. He hadn't been watching where he was going and had tumbled over his trunk, which Amire had been so kind to carry down for him claiming that they might as well save the trip. With a sigh, she placed the scroll she had been examining delicately upon the side table to her left, and rolled her eyes as she moved to help him back to his feet. Hoisting his slight body up with ease, she tossed him backwards onto a loveseat and went back to her own chair to edit Moony's work some more.

She was more straight-lipped than per usual. _Of course she's upset_, he thought as he sent her a slight, apologetic smile, _She thinks her first true friend is about to walk out of her life forever like everyone else she's ever been close to has in her past. _He gave a grimace at the thought of how many had abandoned-whether intentionally or unintentionally- this girl he cared so much for, this girl he considered affectionately to be his sister. He could not let her down, too. Remus could only pray his parents would feel the same way as he.

_Speak of the devils_. His parents strode in through the front doors, his mother holding herself in her aged winter coat as the frigid air seeped through easily, causing her frail, slender frame to quake. The automatic doors closed silently behind the two adults and the warming charm placed over the room thankfully took effect again. Their financial status was fairly obvious given the threadbare appearance of the robes they donned. The pearly, loving smile of the woman canceled out all shabbiness, however.

"Remus!" She scurried forth, enveloping her son in a shockingly strong embrace.

"Mu-um!" he whined, attempting to escape her grip. Succeeding only after several minutes of humorous wiggling on his part, Remus went to Amire's side and sat himself on the arm of the plush chair. She had busied herself with the essays once more, feeling awkward given the family moment taking place in front of her.

"Mum, Dad, this is Amire," She looked up for a second, waved awkwardly and then emerced herself in the papers.

"The one you were always talking about in your letters?" Amire blushed a pale shade of pink and looked up expectantly at Remus. He'd turned a tad red himself. She'd stopped reading the letters between him and his family and only insisted on reading the notes from Sirius and the boys so she wouldn't know just how much he talked about her.

"Yes, Mother, _that_ Amire," He clapped a hand on the girl's delicate, pale shoulder, "I'll be back in a second; I want to ask them something private, really quickly," he whispered in her ear. Getting to his feet, he crossed to his bewildered parents, ignoring Amire's curious, suspicious expression. She kept true to her promise, however, and thus he did not feel the familiar tug of her using legilimency.

Once he and his guardians were out of her earshot- or what he presumed was out of her earshot- he began to plead, whispering, with his parents.

"Please? Mum, Dad, Can't we take her with us!"

"What? Home you mean?" his father asked. Remus could tell by his father's tone that he had not been reading the letters as his mother had and was not aware that Amire was more of a sister; he thought his son was asking him to house his girlfriend. Remus glanced over his shoulder at Wolfie, only to meet an arched eyebrow and crisp violet eyes.

"Well we can't just leave her here!"

"Remus, Love, money is tight as it is, you know that. And school-"

"She already has all the books she needs, mum! She's been having to teach herself for years. She's practically ahead of _me_, even!"

"But I'm sure the next family she's set to go to would be devastated-"

"Mother! All the families she goes to end up only wanting the money they get paid to take care of her! It's cruel!"

"Remus, we don't have the money to adopt her right now,"

"Then foster her! Then you'll even get paid and she'll get the kind of life she deserves! Mum... I'm the only friend she's ever had. If she looses me... then she won't have anyone," desperate, Moony used his secret weapon: puppy-dog eyes.

"Well..." his mother pondered, giving in to the utterly adorable and little-used gesture, "Are you sure she'd even _want_ to come live with us? You _do_ have to consider what she wants, Remus,"

"I'm sure she would!" he replied, but panic was rising in his throat as he stopped to consider. He hadn't even thought of the off chance that Amire would rather go on as she was. He had simply presumed she'd enjoy being with him as his sister.

"What do you say Amire?" He turned to the girl, "Would you like to come with us-" Amire's eyes had been with for a few minutes, now. He'd never in all his time knowing her, seen her violet orbs become that open. She'd obviously heard the whole conversation. _So much for stepping out of earshot..._

"Amire?"

"Moony... I..." Amire was, for the first time in a long time, rather speechless.

"Well? Do you want to come live with me- with us- and be my," he paused for a second, having never actually called her such out loud, "My sister?"

"Remus," she stood slowly and abnormally shakily as she delicately set the parchment rolls down on the table. "I-"

"Oh, you don't? I mean it's fine if you don't want to come I mean it's only an offer and-" He rambled on, his voice cracking, heavy with disappointment half way through.

"Moons-" she stopped him as she took a step forward. He had begun to sniffle, his head bowed and looking at the floor. "It's just, are you sure?"

"What?" He raised his head back up, confusion painted across his features.

"I mean, I'm a lot to deal with. You know that. Are you sure you'd want me around? I wouldn't want to distract you from your studies or disrupt anything..."

"No! Of course I want you around! If anything, you'd help! I'm starting to actually understand Potions a bit better and you could actually help me study where as the others just try to distract me!"

"Well... I suppose it would be nice to have another go at going to school-" That was all it took for Remus to attack her with a great big "wolf" hug, catching her once again off guard. Slowly, he felt her arms wrap around him, hugging back. "But I haven't got a thing packed! It'll-"

"Already done!"

"What- So _that's_ why you were acting suspicious all day! You were packing every time I left the room!" She was met by a broad, mischievous grin. This time it was he who was surprised with a hug.

"Thank you, Moony," she whispered in his ear, barely audible enough for even _his_ keen ears to register. "But if all my books and clothes and things are just tossed in my trunk in a disarray and not neatly, I'm going to kill you. You have no clue how hard it is to iron one of those old corsets!" She said jokingly, though only Remus could tell she was not serious.

"I promise I was neat!" he chuckled, "Come on, let's go fetch that trunk," Tugging on her arm, he dragged her down the length of the hall to the elevator, grinning all the way. As he looked back at her, keeping up well considering the motion had startled her, Remus couldn't help but notice something.

_Amire was actually smiling._

AN: Sorry it's so short, but you just got a 20 page long one last chapter, so you shouldn't be complaining. Next may take a bit longer as it isn't finished at the moment.

Is no one going to try the challenge from a few chapters ago? No? Well, fine then, you'll find out eventually. -pouts-


End file.
